Abstract:
The Bermuda Bio-Optics Project (BBOP) explores the relationship between light and upper ocean biogeochemistry at an open ocean site near the island of Bermuda. This site is occupied approximately 16 times a year as part of the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series, BATS, which is part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study, JGOFS.

The goal is to evaluate the role of light in the cycling of carbon, ... nitrogen, silica, phosphorous and sulfur in the upper ocean and to study these processes using satellite ocean color sensors (i.e., SeaWiFS). To this end, BBOP is a contributor to the SeaWiFS Bio-Optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS) data base.

A profiling spectroradiometry system is deployed during each BATS cruise. These data provide the "optical link" between the BATS biogeochemistry measurements and the SeaWiFS ocean color imagery. A full-time satellite acquisition and analysis project has been established at the Bermuda Biological Station, in which ocean color and other satellite imagery are used to extend the BBOP time-series observations throughout the North Atlantic basin.